章節 97: Goals
Upon hearing Senior Xukong's words, Lin Mu did not feel disappointed. If anything, he felt calm as this only meant that he had more time to prepare for it. Not to mention even if he killed the great slumber bear, he still did not know how he would obtain its bloodline.
Lin Mu's guess turned out to be true as Senior Xukong soon continued his explanation.
"The bloodline of the Great slumber bear is very strong; thus you will need to prepare beforehand. Usually, when a beast is killed for the purpose of obtaining its bloodline, it is stored in a special container. But you don't have that luxury, thus when you kill the Great slumber bear, you will have to assimilate the bloodline right away.
But the next problem that you will face after assimilating the bloodline would be the activation of the ability 'Well of slumber'. If you do not prepare well and fall asleep, you will simply starve to death, thus during this time period you need to learn the technique of the lost immortal.
But simply having the technique won't be enough. Assimilating a bloodline is a tough task. You need a strong will and body to be able to successfully do it. Especially in the case of an immensely strong bloodline of the great slumber bear, your body will need to be very strong.
Thus for that, you will need to reach the completion of the body tempering realm and saturate your body with the maximum amount of vital energy that you can." Xukong explained in detail.
After hearing and comprehend senior Xukong's words, Lin Mu started to formulate his plans for the upcoming year.
He now had a goal, which was to obtain the bloodline of the great slumber bear. In addition to this, there were some other goals he needed to complete. The first of which was to investigate the culprits, and the next was to increase his own cultivation.
~Sigh~
Lin Mu sighed at the multitude of tasks that he needed to do, but his eyes seemed to be glowing with determination. He was not appalled at this, but was rather looking forward to it. Lin Mu was also feeling that they were making little waste after coming all this way.
"Seems like we will have to find the great slumber beast once again next time." Lin Mu spoke.
"That won't be much of a problem. A great slumber bear, once it enters its sleeping phase, won't move from its location unless it is disturbed. This cave seems to be rather isolated, and just the mere presence of the great slumber bear will repel most beasts.
Also, considering its current condition and its recovery period, it's likely that it won't wake up for more than a year at least." Xukong replied.
"That should make it easy for us. I'll have plenty of time too and should be able to prepare everything till then." Lin Mu said while nodding his head.
Now that Lin Mu knew what to do next, he wanted to check out the rest of the cave. He continued on forward and entered the wall. Only when he was a sufficient distance away from the Great slumber Bear did he come out of the wall and deactivate the skill phase.
Lin Mu kept his spirit sense alert and would scan the area that was in front of him every few seconds, ensuring that nothing dangerous was there. The way floor that he was walking on once again became sloping and he started ascending again.
Lin Mu must have walked for at least eight hundred meters more along the winding and curving cave until finally, he reached its exit. The exit of the cave was rather large, being about six meters tall and ten meters wide.
Lin Mu was rather surprised that such a big cave was unknown. The hunters should have known of it most likely, but somehow it had still stayed hidden. Only when he walked a short distance away did he realize why; the mouth of the cave was at a slanting angle such that the trees and the face of the mountain would hide it.
From far away, the mouth of the cave was completely hidden, and no hunter would spot it easily. The snow only made it easy to hide as well. Lin Mu looked around but did not see anything peculiar.
"I should climb a tree and get a gauge of the area. Perhaps I'll find something nearby." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
Lin Mu found a relatively short tree and used blink to appear at a branch that was at its top. From there he blinked to another tree and kept on going upwards until he finally reached the highest point he could for now.
Lin Mu took a look around and saw the white and green spread of land that was the northern forest. Behind him was the mountain out of which he had walked out of, and in front of him was the rest of the northern forest.
Far in the distance, he could see the Northern mountain ranges as well. Those mountains were perhaps the farthest any hunter had ever gone, as the area beyond them was considered to be a forbidden area due to the high amount of danger.
Lin Mu remembered the scary stories he heard from his parents about how there were monsters living beyond the northern mountains, and that's why it was called as a forbidden area. But now that he looked at the snowy white mountains, they looked anything but scary.
They simply looked...
"Beautiful..." Lin Mu muttered.
The clouds in the sky had flown away and the snow had stopped. The half-moon could be seen hog up in the sky and stars could be seen twinkling in the blanket of night. Gently flowing wind passed through Lin Mu's hair as he stood on the top of the tallest tree.
Having taken his fill of the picturesque scene, Lin Mu had decided to get down when he spotted some broken trees.
Because he was at the very top and the snow had covered the land, these trees were hard to spot. Lin Mu descended to some lower trees and went towards the location where he had seen the broken trees. He then discovered that a long trail of broken trees could be seen heading towards a particular direction.
Lin Mu immediately recognized what it was, and an idea appeared in his mind. He got down onto the ground and checked the broken trees. All of them were knocked down with some of them being splintered because of a great force.
Lin Mu looked at the leaves of the broken trees and judged that they were broken down not too long ago, most likely a week ago. The trail of broken trees came from the center of the forest and went all the way to the entrance of the cave.
"Was this done by the Great slumber bear?" Lin Mu questioned himself.
"Hmm, it does seem like it." Xukong acknowledged.
Suddenly Lin Mu remembered something.
"Wait, Zhou Ye told us that when he was attacked, the beast later ran away and while running away the beast had knocked down the trees. If we follow this, we can find the site of the attack!"
章節 98: The Abandoned Cave
Now that Lin Mu had an idea of how to proceed, he acted on it. He followed the trail of the broken and knocked down trees and tried to find the site of the attack. He walked for quite a long distance and reached a relatively wide and open area that seemed to be natural.
There were no more broken trees here, so Lin Mu concluded that the site of the attack should have been nearby.
"Now I just need to look for a broken carriage," Lin Mu muttered to himself as his eyes looked around.
Since it was dark, Lin Mu was also using his spirit sense to scan the area. Still, even after searching for over fifteen minutes, Lin Mu did not find anything. It was as if the carriage had disappeared into the thin air.
"The carriage cannot be taken away by a beast, then that means... The culprits! They must have removed their traces later on." Lin Mu guessed.
"You should use your spirit sense to look under the snow, it's likely that the traces of the carriage and the tracks may be buried below the snow," Xukong suggested.
Lin Mu nodded his head as he looked below the snow. But his search seemed to have been for naught, as there did not seem to be any traces here either. Whoever the culprits were, they were smart enough to erase all traces.
At least that's what Lin Mu thought until he found something that was stuck in the trunk of a tree. What Lin Mu had found was a broken part of a wooden plan. It had broken off in a diagonal manner, and the sharp part was embedded in the trunk of a tree.
Lin Mu only found hits by chance as he was looking around. And he actually did not find this because of his spirit sense, but rather because of his own eyesight. The thing that had pulled Lin Mu's attention was actually the glint of the moonlight that had shined off of a small nail.
This nail was stuck into the broken plank that was then stuck in the trunk of a tree. Lin Mu thanked his luck as he pulled out the broken piece of the plank. He looked at the broken plan and saw its finish and size.
It was a properly cut and trimmed piece of wood, thus there was no doubt that it was a part of the carriage.
"Seems like they missed this piece. Now you just need to figure out which direction you're supposed to go." Xukong chimed in.
Lin Mu nodded in response and looked around for more clues, but he still could not find any.
'Hmm, we were supposed to meet up with the other team a distance away from here in the south, so that means the culprit's cave must be in the other direction. It could be something else, but I just have to take a chance.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
Having decided, Lin Mu turned to the northern direction and walked along the broad pathway. The pathway was a natural one and was basically a clearing. Lin Mu could tell that in other times of the year, animals probably passed through here, large animals.
There was no other reason why such a large path was present here in the forest. Another surprising thing that Lin Mu realized was that he had not seen nor heard any beast in the surroundings. He didn't know if it was because of the weather or if it was because of the Great slumber Bear.
"It's definitely the Great slumber bear. The bloodline aura of it should keep away even beasts that are many cultivation realms above it, away from it. The innate fear that's present in the bloodlines of these beasts will force them to stay away." Xukong explained.
"This is good. Now we know that the beast won't be disturbed from its sleep and we won't have to find it later." Lin Mu replied as he nodded in acknowledgment.
Lin Mu had walked for about an hour now and finally got a small clue. Buried in the snow, he found a track mark that was no doubt from the wheels of a carriage. The track mark was very faint and would have been invisible if not for his spirit sense.
Lin Mu carefully brushed away the snow from the place that the track was at and revealed it. He looked at it and saw that the track slightly curved to the left. This prompted him to turn his head up and look to the left.
Lin Mu saw that another small clearing was present in between the trees. It was camouflaged by the snow and he would have missed it if not for the track marks. He thus turned left and continued on. This time, Lin Mu was able to find more clues.
There were faint footsteps that were buried under the snow and seemed to be coming from a single direction.
"Hmm, the footsteps are very shallow. Whoever the culprits are, they are definitely trained in movement techniques." Xukong spoke.
"Movement techniques?" Lin Mu questioned as his brow raised in response.
"A movement technique is a special skill that can be used by a cultivator to improve their speed and agility. Some techniques are also specialized for assassination, sneaking, battle, speed, and more things. Though the one in this case is but just a minor foot technique used to lighten steps." Xukong explained.
"That's interesting, perhaps I'll get to learn one sometime in the future." Lin Mu responded and continued following in the footsteps.
The footsteps led him all the way to a mountain that was covered with tall pine trees. The entirety of it was covered with snow and looked beautiful. Lin Mu finally reached the side of the mountain and came to stand in front of a large boulder.
"Huh? This is it? There's nothing here." Lin Mu muttered.
He looked around, but this was where the footsteps had ended at. He used his spirit sense to observe the surroundings and detected a hollow space behind the large boulder. The boulder was placed in such a way that it leaned agings the wall of the mountain.
If one looked at it from far, they would think that the boulder had naturally rolled off of the mountain and had come to settle here. Lin Mu moved the snow from the ground around the boulder away and saw the dragging marks.
"Oh, so this boulder was moved here from the side to block the path to the cave." Lin Mu spoke.
'Seems like I need to make way for myself now." Lin Mu thought and tried to push the boulder.
He knew that he wouldn't be able to push it with his current strength, but he still wanted to try it, hoping for a miracle. His hopes were dashed quickly, as he wasn't even able to make it budge. Even when he used the entirety of his body's strength and stretched it with spirit qi, there was no effect.
The boulder was about three meters tall and four meters wide. There was no way Lin Mu could move it.
"Don't waste your efforts, just use your skill and walk through it directly," Xukong spoke in a chiding tone.
"Yes, senior." Lin Mu replied while feeling a little embarrassed.
He activated the third skill Phase and walked through the boulder. A second later he appeared in a pitch-black cave. Lin Mu stayed alert and scanned the cave with his spirit sense first and did not deactivate the skill yet.
He was fully expecting for there to be people here, but surprisingly there was nobody. Having confirmed that the cave was abandoned, Lin Mu deactivated the skill and lit up an old half-burned torch that was attached to one of the walls nearby.
With the flame blazing, the abandoned cave was illuminated and Lin Mu was finally able to see it. The first thing he noticed was the large number of cages that were present in the cave, along with chains and other types of restraints.
There were also some pieces of furniture scattered all around, along with a few random articles. Lin Mu checked out the cages and discovered small amounts of blood in some of them. In another corner, he also found some old food.
Some parts of the food had gone moldy, while the rest still seemed to be fine.
"Looks like they left in a hurry." Xukong spoke.
"Yes, but why? Did they know we were coming here or was it something else?" Lin Mu questioned in response.
Lin Mu looked around and saw the rooms that were located in the different corners of the cave. Most of them were empty, and the others only had some random items left in them. All Lin Mu could understand right now was that this cave was used to temporarily hold the mercenaries here.
"Looks like I'll need to guide the Hei corps here. They have better investigational skills than me, they should know what clues I missed."
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